Taking his shot at gold

Man paralyzed in '05 heads to Paralympics

NORTH LAUDERDALE — He decided to join the Marines at 16. An accident left him paralyzed from the neck down at 20.

Now Carlos Leon, 23, is headed to the Beijing Paralympics - the Olympics for people with physical disabilities - hoping to inspire thousands of wounded veterans returning from war.

"When people come back and they don't have support, they fall into that depression, that pit," said Leon, sitting in a wheelchair at the home here where he grew up. "I just try and use my story."

After three years of rehabilitation and training, Leon has good use of his arms again and will compete in the seated discus and shot put events in China this September.

It's been a long journey in a short period. Leon's injury didn't come in battle. He was deployed to Iraq in early 2005, providing security for radio reconnaissance teams south of Baghdad.

The diving accident happened that June, on a weekend when the young sergeant was at the beach in Hawaii celebrating being back in the States. He remembers the rush of the ocean, a flash of heat when his head hit a rock and his neck snapped, and holding his breath as he floated in silence. He couldn't move and his friends didn't realize at first that he needed rescuing.

His first words when they finally dragged him out: "I can't feel my body." And later came the doctor's diagnosis: "You're paralyzed from the neck down."

Leon balked, a gung-ho Marine facing life in a hospital bed.

"I'm not going to stay like this, sir?" he half-asked, half-told his platoon commander.

It turned out Leon's spinal cord was not severed. The left side of his upper body improved dramatically with training and surgery that replaced and fused some vertebrae.

"Little by little, things started coming back," he said. "I thought, 'If all I have is my arms, I'm going to have the strongest arms in the world.' "

Though still a quadriplegic, Leon's injury is considered "incomplete" in medical terms, which means he can stand and walk for brief periods with help. Within months of the accident, a therapist encouraged him to attend a military sports camp. He tried track-and-field events modified for people in wheelchairs. He learned he could compete.

His trainers have been impressed with his progress and his mind set. Leon's abilities qualified him for a program that assists select veterans hoping to make the Paralympics.

"With some people, it's, 'OK, I'm a cripple now. I'm going to sit in this chair and waste away,' " said Greg Peters, a fitness specialist with the Lakeshore Foundation. "When people see Carlos perform, it's like, 'Wow, I can do that?' "

Leon made the U.S. team June 15 in Tempe, Ariz.

He remembers the qualifying discus event - the 102-degree temperature at 8:45 p.m., listening to salsa on his headphones to calm his nerves. His practice throw was a flop and his trainer advised him to focus on the movement instead of the force behind it. Finally came his wind-up and release.

"It was very fluid-like, a very graceful motion," Leon remembered.

The discus landed 22.04 meters, or more than 72 feet away, setting an unofficial world record that will become official once the paperwork is finished, said U.S. Paralympics spokeswoman Beth Bourgeois.For the rest of the summer, Leon will continue to train. Then it's onto the "Big Show." Roman and Nubia Leon, parents of the Coconut Creek High graduate, will be watching from the stands.

"Whatever he puts his mind to, he can complete," said his mother.

Whether or not Leon wins a medal, he says his accomplishments since the accident have given him the resolve to return to Florida and pursue a college degree in business, something he once didn't think he could do. Leon, who is single, also dreams of starting a family, as well as speaking around the country about how sports changed his life.

"So you're a quadriplegic. So what?" he said. "You can still be part of a community."

Jamie Malernee can be reached at jmalernee@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4849.